Free Life (balloon)

Free Life was the name of the ill-fated Rozière balloon (registration N2079) that made the fourth attempt at crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The balloon was launched from East Hampton, New York on 20 September 1970, piloted by Malcolm Brighton, with Rodney Anderson and Pamela Brown on board.

Background

The adventure was thought up by Rodney Anderson and his wife, Pamela Brown. Pamela Brown was the actress daughter of Kentucky politician and attorney John Y. Brown, Sr. and the sister of Kentucky Fried Chicken entrepreneur and future Kentucky Governor John Y. Brown Jr. At age 28, she and her 32-year-old husband, commodities broker Rod Anderson, hoped to break records with the first manned balloon flight across the Atlantic. The couple planned to recoup the cost of the venture by writing a book about their experience. When the pilot whom they had been counting on for the flight withdrew late in the game, the Andersons hired Englishman Malcolm Brighton, 32, whose ascent in the Free Life was to be his 100th - and his last. Malcolm Brighton had built several balloons and became the main builder for the Bristol Belle, the name given to the first modern hot air balloon in Europe.

Free Life

Let's take a little trip down where we used to goIt's way beyond the strip, a place they call your soulWe'll sit down for a while and let the evening rollDon't worry about the time, we'll find a place to stayThe people 'round here seem familiar in some wayLook kind of like we did before we got so coldAnd in the air the questions hangWill we get to do something?Who we gonna end up being?How we gonna end up feeling?What you gonna spend your free life on? Free lifeLet's fall in love again with music as our guideWe'll raise our ready hands and let go for the rideDown into unknown lands where lovers need and hideWe got these lives for free, we don't know where they've beenWe don't know where they'll go when we are through with themA starlight of the sun, the dark side of the moonIn the air the questions hangWill we get to do something?Who we gonna end up being?How we gonna end up feeling?What you gonna spend your free life on?Free life, free life, free lifeIt seems so long ago, those empty afternoonWith nowhere much to go and nothing much to doBut sit up in my room and let the world unfoldIn the air the questions hangWill we get to do something?Who we gonna end up being?How we gonna end up feeling?What you gonna spend your free life on?In the air the questions hangWill we get to do, do something?End up being, end up feelingWhat you gonna spend your free life on?